More Than Taste Buds: The Infuence of Comfort Food on Outbound Tourists’ Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the post-COVID-19 era, outbound tourism has experienced a significant resurgence, and the psychological well-being of tourists has been also re-emphasized. However, the inclination of tourists to seek comfort elements reminiscent of their hometown flavors to mitigate emotional distress at foreign destinations has been overlooked. As a result, this study aims to investigate the influence of outbound tourists’ motivations for local food that provides physical and psychological comfort on their subsequent behavioral intentions and subjective well-being (SWB). In total, 269 valid responses were received. The purposive sampling and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was then utilized to analyze the collected data. Findings reveal that outbound tourists’ motivations for comfort food significantly influenced both behavioral intentions and SWB, whereas the correlation between behavioral intentions and SWB was not supported. These results highlight the essential role of comfort food plays in improvements on outbound tourists’ positive behavioral intentions and SWB based on different demographics after the outbreak of pandemic. This study offers valuable insights for varied tourism industry practitioners. Suggestions for future research were also provided.